DavidMcMahon wrote:"Fight it or try to get around it," Stone Fist asked his friend laconically. "Either way, I'm ready."

"I'm not sure we are equipped to deal with this on our own. Lets try and get around it and leave fighting as our last option, if fortune doesn't reward our bravery."

Jade Hood shuddered, if Stone Fist was captured by that thing, imagine the army it could turn out. Men with Stone Fist's invulnerability and other features would be truly unstoppable.

OOC: Let Stone Fist lead the way around I'll protect the doctor and using my throwing stars if either it, or the guards or its 'clone' try to attack. My aim is to keep us all moving. If I need to attack the creature I'll go for something that looks vulnerable, eye stalks or sensitive areas that might give it pause for thought. Equally if the guards get on us, then I will aim at stopping them, rather than killing them. No time for such niceties, aim to get out asap in one piece.

The creature seemed to probe, sightless, in the dark, though it must have been guided by a sense of smell, or some other arcane unnatural sense, like the ability to sense heat.

The probing tentacles came close, but the group stayed clear and stuck to the walls. One of the tentacles snapped like a wild dog in the darkness, reaching and grabbing at whatever it could take! The 'mouth' on the tentacle was large enough to grab a mans torso and swallow it whole - even one as large as Stone Fists!

Deeper and darker into the cave, they left the huge monstrosity behind and came into a new, narrower section of the cave. There was something else here...

Glowing spheres, around a foot high and about as wide. No, not spheres...

"Eggs!" hissed the Doctor as she came near one. She reached a hand for one but stopped short and turned to the others, then stood. The trio looked out into the darkness... there were dozens of eggs in here. At the far end of the cave there appeared to be a rough hewn tunnel in the stone, narrower than the cave and perhaps leading out, or elsewhere at any rate.

"These eggs... What if each one were a creature, like that back there? Able to produce dozens of copies of someone at once, create agents, armies even, of superior warriors, technicians, planners, schemers, leaders? Whomever brought this thing back into the past aimed to use the very aliens that conquered my Earth to rule this one! My Earth would never come to pass... because this one will be enslaved within years, or months, even! Imagine if each one of these... these things were allowed to grow to adulthood and turn out clone after clone..." hissed the Doctor, horrified. "We must do something!"

Shouts from the cave suggested someone was coming this way, but the curvature of the cave prevented even Stone Fist from seeing who! The other path lay through the egg field to the exit of the cave at the far side...

"These eggs... What if each one were a creature, like that back there? Able to produce dozens of copies of someone at once, create agents, armies even, of superior warriors, technicians, planners, schemers, leaders? Whomever brought this thing back into the past aimed to use the very aliens that conquered my Earth to rule this one! My Earth would never come to pass... because this one will be enslaved within years, or months, even! Imagine if each one of these... these things were allowed to grow to adulthood and turn out clone after clone..." hissed the Doctor, horrified. "We must do something!"

Shouts from the cave suggested someone was coming this way, but the curvature of the cave prevented even Stone Fist from seeing who! The other path lay through the egg field to the exit of the cave at the far side...

"How very John Carterish," Stone Fist murmurs. [A Princess of Mars, the first John Carter book was written in 1917. All Martians, regardless of race, were born from eggs, sort of like chickens. Eggs created inside the females who then laid them and a number of years later - 7 I think - they would hatch into babies.] "Let's break one and see what is inside it."

Stone Fist pauses to see if Jade Hood has any negative thoughts on that and if he doesn't, breaks the biggest one he can see.

Jade Hood, looked quizzically at the mention of the fictional hero, wondering at Stonefist's literary likes. But then English not being his native language, reading wasn't something he did a lot of.

DavidMcMahon wrote:Stone Fist pauses to see if Jade Hood has any negative thoughts on that and if he doesn't, breaks the biggest one he can see.

"It is a pity that we cannot be done with the lost a couple of sticks of dynamite should do it...However needs must, ready!"

Jade Hood stood where he could best aid his friend, throwing stars at the ready, in case something within the egg, overcame even Stonefist's formidable constitution.

OOC: Ok whilst Stonefist prizes open an egg, I will be at the ready either to attack anything that has a go for Stonefist, or and if necessary pull him away should something else arise. If the doctor has any handy tricks up her sleeve, now would be a good time to reveal it.

Though baked leather tough, the eggs would not withstand Stone Fists fingers prizing into their shell!

With a crack the egg split...

And there was a great bellow from the creature in the cavern, some distance away!

The Doctor gasped, looking fearful in that direction, then shone her amazing pen-light down on the split egg. Oozing sludge spilled forth, and a slime coated form slides out. It looked like a miniature version of the creature they'd seen before, but not fully formed so that the tentacles were stumps, and the body looked soft and yielding. Of course, the size of the thing, barely a foot high, didn't compare to the thing they'd seen in the cavern. Not yet anyway.

"An alien!" hissed the Doctor. "These things were just some of the creatures that conquered Earth in my time!" she cried. "Mindless, groping things, yet able to spew out replicas of humans to do their bidding! I wonder... might it have sub-animal intelligence now, but be linked somehow to all the clones it can create, and all their minds be linked? And if that is the case, might then the collected minds formed a large, intelligent hive mind?"

She looked around at the eggs in the cave.

"They must bring victims - food - down here. These creatures would feed, then copy the food, and spew out duplicates! With each duplicate, the collective Intelligence of the creature would increase, and it would build a network of agents, soldiers even, to take over the Earth!"

The trio looked through the cavern.

There were too many eggs to easily - or quickly - count.

"Each one of these..." she left the comment unfinished as there was shouting and sounds of running feet coming this way! They would be here in moments!

OOC Uhm, oops. Forgot this update as well. D'oh! Sorry chaps. Anyway, it's on my list o stuff. It's been a rough week as even though the oldest son is back at work I've been mostly sat on a train which makes it difficult to do anything. Life, as usual...

DavidMcMahon wrote:"Destroy them" Stone Fist asked the others. "What's the fastest way besides me smashing them all? Can we burn them? Drown them? Or do I need to do a Samson on this cavern?"

"Therein might well lie the only way, my friend. But it would be nothing if we can't destroy that thing in there." Jade Hood pointed to the chamber they'd just left.

"If we do not bring the roof down on that thing and kill it totally, its slaves would dig it free. But if we, by which I mean you, could bring the roof down on it. Then it might die and with it all its minions!"

Jade Hood said somewhat perplexed by the shock of what they saw and the solution they sought to stop this madness before it was beyond control. Then turning to the Doctor he asked, "Doctor do you have any munitions or explosives that might help?"

OOC: I guess we look for a structurally unsound point and Stone Fist tries to do a Samson, as he suggested or and we use anything the doc can rig - energy pack set to explode etc, to also bring the roof down and hopefully kill the creature! All the while I'll have to keep the guards from stopping them, as best I can.

No worries about the delay mate, in fact for that reason I sat on my response for a whole day - yes I know, it wasn't easy because I realised that turning my posts around quickly does nothing to speed things up, But waiting gives me a chance to savour my response.

"If we do not bring the roof down on that thing and kill it totally, its slaves would dig it free. But if we, by which I mean you, could bring the roof down on it. Then it might die and with it all its minions!"

Jade Hood said somewhat perplexed by the shock of what they saw and the solution they sought to stop this madness before it was beyond control. Then turning to the Doctor he asked, "Doctor do you have any munitions or explosives that might help?"

Stone Fist looks for any weak spots or any boxes of dynamite that might be casually lying around. He also looks for any stalagmites that he could break off and use to stab the creature with.

Stone Fist dashed to the walls, sizing up those stalagmites that had - over time - turned into supporting columns for the cave roof

Meanwhile his agile companion sprinted to the edge of the cave and waited for the guards to spill into it...

The Doctor fished through pouches in her coat, coming up with strange looking tools. She started to disassemble her torch, and called out "I just need a few moments!"

Stone Fist took hold of a column, tested it with a push, then slammed a shoulder against it with a grunt...

Dust fell from the ceiling, followed by a number of cracks!

Meanwhile half a dozen guards - men in dark red with dark red turbans - came around the corner. They wielded knives that gleamed with some viscous liquid! Poison?

Meanwhile there was a roar and it became clear the beast was agitated at the scent of so much food nearby! The eggs in the cavern started to respond... and some began to crack open!

OOC Will update this tomorrow. Will Stone Fist continue to concentrate on the roof supports or go help his friend against six enemies? The Doctor needs time to reconfigure her gadget into a small explosive device. With a number of columns broken and the explosive set, it might just bring the roof down... Will Jade Hood attack all at once, one at a time or in small groups? There is an multi attack you can use that makes it progressively harder to hit and hurt your opponents the more you fight. Your options are: 1 opponent (no modifier) 2 opponents (+1 OV and RV, which is a bad thing), 3-4 opponents (+2 OV/RV worse) 5-8 opponents (+3 OV/RV which is really making things tricky, but you might be able to take them out in one go...) Your call

Any stalagmites or stalactites small enough that Stone Fist can break them off and use it as an area effect attack thrown at two or three of them grouped close enough together? If so, he will stop long enough to do that. If not, continue with what he is doing and rely on his comrade to handle or slow down those men.

DavidMcMahon wrote:Any stalagmites or stalactites small enough that Stone Fist can break them off and use it as an area effect attack thrown at two or three of them grouped close enough together? If so, he will stop long enough to do that. If not, continue with what he is doing and rely on his comrade to handle or slow down those men.

Meanwhile as the men came in, Jade Hood meant to make the beast use them against it. Dodging back toward the beast, he knew that if it devoured them, it would spew out replacements. But if he dodged away from them, and used the available cover he might be able to stop them attacking at once. Even funnel them so as to be more effective in his single attacks.

OOC: Ok just to be clear I wan to get them to try an follow me, using what available cover there is to funnel of focus them so they less of them can attack me at once. I however will take them one at a time, or two at max, no point is pushing it. But what hero points I have I will use for my duel attack, trying to push things a bit so as to make the more of trying to take them down...

Stone Fist continued to break stalactites and stalagmites with fist and foot, head and shoulder...

The stone shattered under his mighty blows. It wasn't hard work - his fists were far harder than the stone he was shattering - rather that tehre were so many, and deciding which were supporting and which would have no effect took time. To an onlooker it might look as if he were indiscriminate in his smashing blows.

=========

Jade Hood backed off as men came towards him.

He glanced to the sides and stifled a grin. The eggs to his left and right were cracking, and for a great number of men to come at him they would have to climb over the eggs, not something they relished when oozing slime covered tentacles clawed their way out of the shells.

He then changed tactics and stepped forward, slightly crouched and with eyes narrowed...

OOC 2d10 → [4,10] = (14) Success. Knocks two guards clean out!

A leg sweep and rising elbow to meet a chin followed up by a head butt and one/two combination into the gut sent two men flying backwards as Jade Hood put paid to two opponents with ease. They were stronger and faster than an average man on the street might be, but Jade Hood was near superhuman by comparison! His skills were world class, his physique and determination almost matchless.

Two more rushed forward to take the first two's place and attacked with cosh and knife!

OOC 2d10 → [1,1] = (2) And fail miserably, with the first attack. The second...2d10 → [8,7] = (15) Success. He strikes Jade Hood and inflicts a single point of damage. Jade Hood is on 5/6 Body.

Jade Hood grunted as the cosh struck him on the arms, but noted that more guards were threading their way into the cavern and spreading out. Some were pulling guns.

OOC There are now a dozen guards (2 down, 10 remaining) in the cavern and more on the way. Stone Fist will require more time to unsettle the cavern roof and the Doctor will need the same to rig up her small explosive. And all the while, the oozing slime covered tentacles break free of eggs, and the creature in the previous cave gets louder, and angrier, groping in the darkness with its powerful jaw capped tentacles...

Admin wrote:OOC There are now a dozen guards (2 down, 10 remaining) in the cavern and more on the way. Stone Fist will require more time to unsettle the cavern roof and the Doctor will need the same to rig up her small explosive. And all the while, the oozing slime covered tentacles break free of eggs, and the creature in the previous cave gets louder, and angrier, groping in the darkness with its powerful jaw capped tentacles...

OOC: Right in which case I think I start to play catch with me trying not to be caught...

Jade Hood took one look at the oncoming assailants and decided that he might fair better if he lead them deeper into the cave, but away from his friends. Threading his way between the gushing eggs, as they spewed forth their grotesque content, he started to work away from his friends whereby he might yet be able to turn and attack, before going further and deeper.

Stone Fist just pauses long enough in his demolition to grab some debris and throw it at the approaching enemy to help slow down their advance and then goes back to trying to bring down the roof on the monsters.

Moving with speed and agility beyond the scope of most normal peoples ability to comprehend, Jade Hood kept ahead of the 'maddening crowd'...

When one thought they'd get a clear shot, he moved so that another of the men were in the way. Flying stalactites gave them reason to pause, and the constant CRACK! as superhuman hands shattered rock and tossed them easily across the cavern...

The Doctor, looking up frantically, pulled wires from the gadget and wrapped them together before standing and shouting "It's... it's done! It won't be big but it will bring this place down!"

Stone Fist heard loud and terrible cracking overhead, and dust fell... followed by debris and larger rocks. The Doctor shouted "Throw it! Into the gap!" and tossed the gadget at Stone Fist who caught it easily...

OOC 2d10 → [10,9] = (19)

The only problem was his friend - Jade Hood - was now at the other side of the cavern and if the explosion were to bring the roof down, he would be trapped in here whilst Stone Fist and the Doctor would be on the other side! To complicate matters, a huge tendril blindly groped with a Venus-Flytrap like head into the egg cavern. Dozens of the eggs had cracked now and slime covered creatures were squealing, moving free of the eggs and dragging themselves towards the many heat sources in the room...

The Doctor screamed "Arggh! They... I'm trapped here!" Stone Fist looked over as tendrils blindly reached for the Doctor who backed up... against a wall and with half a dozen of the creatures closing in!

Another loud crack revealed itself above Stone Fists head and he knew he had to toss the explosive into it. He looked across at the mob chasing his friend - he could no longer see Jade Hood some fifty feet away thanks to the mob closing in on him!

=========

Jade Hood had done his job well...

Perhaps too well... He faced off against seven men closing in all around him. They were armed with knives and coshes. The gunmen had turned and were trying to get closer to Stone Fist to fire shots off... Suddenly one of the men surrounding Jade Hood screamed as huge jaws, like those of a Venus Flytrap, clamped around the mans lower body and bit him clean in half! The tendril shot back through the cave into the previous cave...

...even as four more tentacles with those awful ravenous jaws entered the cave, groping about and looking for food!

OOC Jade Hood is cornered by 6 men. He wins initiative...

Stone Fist has a ceiling about to split and tumble in on top of him. If he tosses the explosive up into the crack there's a good chance it will bring the WHOLE place down, not just the place where Stone Fist is stood

The Doctor is cornered by these baby creatures. Though they are only knee high, they have the same groping tentacles with mouths...

Stone Fist has a ceiling about to split and tumble in on top of him. If he tosses the explosive up into the crack there's a good chance it will bring the WHOLE place down, not just the place where Stone Fist is stood

The Doctor is cornered by these baby creatures. Though they are only knee high, they have the same groping tentacles with mouths...

OOC: Oh tense and exciting. Right what do I need to do, to use the momentary distractions of the roof cracking and the creature stealing/chomping one of the men, to use that moment to jump over the group and back around or the way I came? Because that is what I want to do. If I only had a line launcher or some way to swing, Errol Flynn style across the cavern!

Jade Hood saw, what he hoped was a moment. The distraction afforded by the certain knowledge they all stared death in the face, and it wasn't certain who was going to blink first. Readying himself, a fleeting thought occurred to him for some sort of climbing device, by which a situation like this might be made less difficult. But that was a thought he had to tuck away for another day. Now as the moment, jump, and jump past, or through or even over the huddled group so as to use their surprise against them and regain safe ground before deaths jaws caught them all.

OOC D'oh, look at the last date and this one. Crappy updating from me sorry guys. Anyway, here we are...

With a glance about, rocks falling to the left and right and enemies closing in, Jade Hood knew he was out of time!

He considered his best options in the wink of an eye - to hesitate was to die! With that he leapt at the nearest enemy!

OOC 2d10 → [7,4] = (11) Acrobatics check (need to update character sheet, GM TAKE NOTE! which is a reminder for me when I get chance to have a look whilst stuck in sidings this coming morning...)

The guards yelled as the masked man leapt up... onto the shoulder of the first guard, then flipped in the air and somersaulted over the last guard! He 'climbed' up the nearest man to use him to boost up to a stalactite (OOC or is it the other way round?) and swing round it, using his momentum to fly a dozen feet through the air and land in a rolling crouch! Guns went off around him, then shouts and screams followed it as more rocks fell from above!

Seeing his friend zig zag, rolling and diving across the cavern and making himself a hard target, Stone Fist grinned then tossed the explosive into the gap above him after seeing the Doctor 'saved' when rocks splattered one of the awoken creatures and she took her chance to escape!

Using his body as a shield, Stone Fist moved towards the exit as bullets zipped past him...

With the RATATATATATAT! of a tommy gun ringing out along with the crack and crash of stone falling from the ceiling the sound of impending doom loomed large in the ears of those in the cavern! The Doctor, Jade Hood and Stone Fist dashed down the cavern narrow exit tunnel and into darkness whilst a BOOOOOOOOM!!! rung out behind and filled the tunnel with smoke! More crashing rocks, cracking sounds, dust, and darkness...

Only Stone Fist could see in the stygian blackness, but all could hear something else... the sound of water, rushing water, and it was getting louder... Who knew Cairo had rich underground lakes fed by the nearby Nile, and that the cave in had broken free a number of slender barriers of stone... and that the sound of rushing water signalled impending doom for our trio!

Admin wrote:OOC in other words, more a bit later. 00.16 and time to go to work

OOC: Wow the intrigue goes up, will be interesting to see if Jade Hood survived this, how difficult is it to kill a Super Hero in a flooded corridor? Might be more interesting to see how we deal with death, since we've never really come that close. Although the present Vanguard game I don't think we've been hit so hard and knocked down so quickly. If the scale of HP was the same as GH, it might seem ok, but when everything doubles, having 10 body go to 6 or 1 seems like a tone of damage even if it doesn't work that way for HP in DC/BotH. Nonetheless seeing all your hp wiped out so quick, has never happened before. When we're in tight tense battles and moments like what you've described above, then the waiting is a killer, otherwise I'd like to think I'm a reasonably patient man ;-)

Against the crack of rock and thump of falling stones, the Doctor called out...

"What's that noise? It sounds like..." her voice trailed off as a six inch high wave of water rolled over her feet and filled the corridor, running away into the darkness...

She laughed out loud and turned to the others in the near pitch black. "Oh thanks heavens! For a minute there I thought..."

CRACK!!!!

ROOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

"Aiiiiiihhhhh!!!!" she screamed, and grasped a shoulder of each man in the darkness. "DO SOMETHING!!!" she howled.

OOC You have 10 seconds (3 rounds) before this tunnel is FILLED with crashing roaring water! The tunnel continues into the darkness, slightly downhill and all along its length are falling rocks from the ceiling, plus it's pitch black - only Stone Fist and his superhuman night sight can see. Strange how stuff like that seems fairly useless but comes in handy The tunnel itself is hewn from the rock/natural caves and around 15 feet wide, the same high but with stalactites hanging from the ceiling (or the other way round, you know what I mean...)

ooc: So our options are fight our way back to the door, through the monsters and the men and collapsing ceiling? Or head down and downhill in the tunnel and hope we find another exit, like it shoots out into a river or something? Right now, I can't think of any other options.

Jade Hood has the Incredible Luck or Probability Manipulation or whatever that power is called, right?

DavidMcMahon wrote:ooc: So our options are fight our way back to the door, through the monsters and the men and collapsing ceiling? Or head down and downhill in the tunnel and hope we find another exit, like it shoots out into a river or something? Right now, I can't think of any other options.

Jade Hood has the Incredible Luck or Probability Manipulation or whatever that power is called, right?

OOC: Err no, no such luck...He has no powers only skills

Jade Hood shouted, over the din to his friend, "I will grab your wrist, and that of the doctor, since only you can see we are relaying on you to lead us through the tunnels. There must be a way out, Quick lead on the other side..."

OOC: Ok so three rounds of running at top speed, not wanting to be pulled over whilst Stone Fist tries to spot a way out. If its possible for him to leap up with us to higher ground, then let him take the doctor and I can try and climb, if we spot a tunnel branching off or some chasm across which we can leap then so be it. Otherwise we are at the mercy of what lies beyond these tunnels.

"We'll go the way we were originally heading and hope for the best," Stone Fist tells his companions. "it's down hill so hopefully the water will help us move faster. Hold your breath when I tell you to!"

actions: Holding onto to them, head down the tunnel and hope for some kind of exit.

Despite the fact that Stone Fist can see jade Hood and the Doctor are hampered by the lack of sight and can't but help slowing him down - it was akin to closing your eyes and running at top speed. Something you might do in desperation for a few seconds but after grazing and bumping yourself against walls and protrusions you couldn't help but slow down...

The roar of the water got louder!

It got so that the shouts and screams of the Doctor could no longer be heard over the oncoming rush of water, and Stone Fist knew these tunnels would soon - in heartbeats - be full of deadly, cold, wet, death!

They came to a sudden fork in the path, both leading down into yet more natural caves, eroded and ground away by eons of water running through here. One looked more impassable than the other, but both narrowed and had jutting stalactites/stalagmites. Even ignoring whatever he ran through Stone Fist would be slowed and the water... well. This was the end!

Just then he looked up and saw.. .what was that? A dot? No... light! Distant light! A natural chimney or well perhaps? Stone Fist turned... a vast wave crashed around the corner and...